Advancing healthy housing: A strategy for action – a federal interagency approach for improving public health by reducing health and safety risks in housing

In the US, we spend about 70% of our time indoors, resulting in considerable opportunity for residential health and safety hazards to adversely impact our health and wellbeing. Poor housing conditions, such as a structural damage; roofing problems; heating, plumbing, and electrical deficiencies; water leaks and intrusion; pests; damaged paint; and radon gas are associated with a wide range of health conditions. Data from the American Housing Survey indicate that tens of millions of homes have moderate to severe physical housing problems, which are more prevalent in low income households. Residential hazards in the US result in an annual economic burden of billions of dollars in healthcare costs. The concept of a healthy home has evolved over decades and continues with the February 2013 release of Advancing Healthy Housing: A Strategy for Action by the interagency federal Healthy Homes Work Group (HHWG) under the auspices of the President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children. The Strategy has a unified vision, To substantially reduce the number of American homes with health and safety hazards, and five goals: 1) Establish healthy homes recommendations; 2) Encourage adoption of healthy homes recommendations; 3) Create and support training and workforce development to address health hazards in housing; 4) Educate the public about healthy homes; and, 5) Support research that informs and advances healthy housing in a cost-effective manner. The Strategy was developed by the HHWG to improve federal coordination on healthy homes initiatives, focus attention on the public health impact of housing, and to further the national dialogue on promoting healthy homes by enlisting participation from federal, state, local, nonprofit and for-profit partners. This presentation will outline the Strategy and discuss how federal development and promotion of the healthy homes model can result in significant health benefits to the nation.